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Simon just wants to eat in peace man.

I finished reading a fic called The Patron Saints of One Way Trips! such a fun read hehehd

Murderbot repeatedly states that, outside of some specific as shit contexts, it really has a very limited understanding of the universe. That its education modules are crap and frankly far from comprehensive either. And yet? It generally fails to recognise or account for the fact it that it has these massive blind-spots and unfounded biases.

Like, we spend the majority of the books being told again and again just how insanely dangerous rogue SecUnits are. How dangerous they will always be. We are told this by a rogue unit that is, generally, only slightly dangerous to its clients through negligence.

More importantly, Murderbot rarely seems to question some core assumptions even in light of new information. In Artificial Condition we find out that MB has always had a niggling concern that it killed all those people because it disabled its governor modules/disabled the GM in order to kill them all. And what does it find out? That, no, that's not what happened, and that it's probably right that it did hack its GM to ensure that it never happened again.

MB knows that it hacked its GM and then continued protecting clients and doing its job because, well, why not? It fundamentally likes its job, in the sense of it feels a deep and abiding desire to protect humans, to keep them safe. Which makes sense! It's a SecUnit! Of course they're built with not just a shock-collar to keep them in line, but an innate drive to Provide Security. The bits of its job it fundamentally doesn't like are a: when it's made to hurt people who aren't threatening its clients and b: when it's forced to let clients endanger themselves against its judgement.

So what does it do? Does MB reassess its assumption that Rogue Units are of course going to immediately go on a killing spree? Nope! No, it just keeps assuming that it's the likely outcome. It recoils at the very idea of freeing other SecUnits because of that. Because it doesn't seem to understand that it's basing its assumptions on trauma, ironically on trauma that relates to the fact that it fundamentally finds the idea of going on a killing spree horrifying.

And sure, it probably is a minor risk. SecUnits are clearly individuals and there's always going to be some arseholes out there who get free will and immediately go "sweet! Murder Time! gun-arms go pew-pew-pew lol". But, uh, I think it's wildly overestimating the risk factor there.

Which, we see more of how fucking wrong MB is in Network Effect and Platform Decay.

In Network Effect, MB-2.0 frees Three, and what does Three do? We hear its internal thought process and its main driving factor, its default behaviour is "I want to help. I don't know what's going on but I want to Help Protect People". Three does not start blasting every soft, squishy human in range. It tries to get everyone to safety and then volunteers to help rescue someone else. Because it's a SecUnit! That's what SecUnits are made for.

Basically, I was a SecUnit for a day LMAO

Ok that's generous, but let me explain. One of my friends decided to play Minecraft, he doesn't play Minecraft, he was struggling for a while LOL. I do play Minecraft. I had a 5yr long hardcore world, I know a thing or two. So what did my TMBD brained self decide to do?

"Hey I can be your body guard if I you need help"

I gave myself the task: keep him alive at all costs, make sure no mobs hurt him, make sure he's fed, protect this guy he doesn't know what he's doing. So, there I was, self assigned SecUnit for my friend.

Why am I bringing this here? Because

Oh my god.

I think SecUnits deserve at LEAST one (1) compensatory murderous rampage per contract. I understand Murderbot now. WHY ARE HUMANS SO GODDAMN DIFFICUT.

Please eat no the zombie's right there don't go to it there's a creeper there go away why are you not eating EAT. I made you armor PUT ON YOUR ARMOR. check your inventory again I gave you more armor and food- WHY ARE YOU DROWNING, GET IN THE DOOR, STOP DROWNING. I have three arrows on my knee, head and arm respectively, please get away from the ledge you don't know parkour.

And this human, this human in particular is smart okay? This human has a masters degree. I also, well, like him (not in a weird way), but OH MY GOODNESS GOD.

and on top of that, normal SecUnits have to do this while regularly getting their brains zapped off??? be so for real

I get it now, I get it now, Murderbot.

Honestly, if anything, Murderbot is GENEROUS with its humans. I'd be so done oh god I'd be so done.

I can see how, from the perspective of a cop who has grown up in Preservation culture, this must be incredibly annoying, and means even setting aside any prejudices over a SecUnit being a deadly weapon, it kind of comes across to Indah as someone who she can't trust to follow basic standards of professional ethics if it thinks it knows better.

It's so much easier for him to believe in deception, violence, and tragedy than to even entertain the idea of a stranger acting kind, because to his experience that's just what the world is. Mensah, and by extension, the PresAux team, are anomalies. Cruelty is the norm, kindness an outlier. And what's really sad is how many times he's right. No wonder he cried when SecUnit left. He finally realized he had found someone who both understood and defied what his trauma had taught him.

All Systems Red: "I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites."

World-class all-time opening line for the ages, 1000/10, unreal. In the space of exactly one sentence we already know that (1) this person frames itself in terms of its ability to do murder, (2) it has a forced oversight component embedded in it, (3) it has disabled that oversight, (4) it uses free will to do something harmless that it enjoys, and (5) it frames tv as a choice diametrically opposed to the option of murder. The beating heart (or whatever) of the story is right there on the page immediately and you're giggling because it vibes like a funny relatable grumpy line until it's like no, that's it, that's the story, this is what we're doing here. Never getting over this

Artificial Condition: "SecUnits don't care about the news."

Immediately I go "oh no, what's on the news!?" The answer will come up in a page or two and it's gonna be why we meet ART. Which we'll do by the end of the chapter (tho we don't know it yet), because we! Do! Not! Waste! Time! In these books.

Rogue Protocol: "I have the worst luck with bot-driven transports."

Welcome to the "we have confronted concepts of personhood and humanity, now time to confront concepts of personhood and bots" entry.

Exit Strategy: "When I got back to the HaveRatton Station, a bunch of humans tried to kill me. Considering how much I'd been thinking about killing a bunch of humans, it was only fair."

Okay fine, I cheated, this is two sentences. I have free will, I can do that. Point is: this is the book where we circle back to things we saw in All Systems Red in so many ways, and I love love love that we once again start the book talking about murder. The context is different. The emotional weight is different. There's a kind of equal footing to it. We're not quite comfortable with the topic, but we're no longer avoiding it. Murderbot is still a Murderbot to itself, but the humans are kind of Murderbots too. Or maybe no one is. We'll talk about that. Here's where we started the beginning and now start an ending, or more aptly where we start an ending that is, of course, a beginning. You've been here before. You're the same person you were when you were here before. But also, no, you're not.

Murderbot has in fact freed other secunits before. Multiple times. Do not forget that. But also one time it offered and the combat unit was like I ACTIVELY WANT TO MURDER THE FUCK OUT OF YOU. So. It's cautious.

Three is doing something so developmentally important here. It's NOT just that Three knows it has a team to fall back on if it gets into trouble with the baddies, it's also that Three has figured out it can get in trouble with it's own side and that's ok. It's not thrilled to have pissed off ART but it did it anyways! It now knows it can be in trouble and not get tortured or disassembled over it! It did something it wasn't supposed to and then came home to the people who would be mad about it, even though it didn't have to! It could have run off to keep doing it's own thing but didn't.

I love that Murderbot's POV is so limited because it just only cares about it's own missions. If we hear in 2 books from now about how every SecUnit in the Torus deserted their post and have colonized a moon together or something somewhere Murderbot would just be like "huh". Like there would be an emotion check about it but it's not going to stop it's soap operas for more than 3 minutes about it.

I know the idea of the rogue unit that approached Murderbot recognizing Murderbot as the originator of the code is hilarious, but also, let us consider that if it doesn't recognize Murderbot as the originator of the code that unit is gonna get such a weird view of the world. Like sometimes you live your whole life in shackles and then somebody breaks them for you and you run around and the next SecUnit you run into is already free. You'd have to wonder, then, if freedom is far more normal than you'd realized. And you'd have to think- these free units are doing ok. Maybe I can also be ok. Also, the successful free unit is wearing a highly distinctive garment that must have a tactical purpose given than it is still on a mission. And is telling you to change your clothes. So like...maybe it is tactically useful to wear a very colorful poncho thing. Maybe it should tell the other free units to get those, to. It seems to have been aiding that successful free unit. And thus, free sec unit fashion culture is born.

but then it spends the rest of the series just using that name casually like a gamer tag while it panics over minor social interactions.

like, it will literally face a horde of corporate hitmen and think: "i am a terrifying security unit, a literal murderbot."

but then a human says "good morning" to it and murderbot is instantly like: "oh god, why are they talking to me? should i pretend my software is updating? i am going to pass out. i wish i was dead so i could finish season 4 of my space drama."

my brother and his friends in this field trip group were truly great kids. but they were not above run of the mill teenage boy shenanigans. it’s the end of senior year, you and all your buddies are at the amusement park, you’re naturally going to want to act like a complete moron

there was one kid in the group who was especially prone to goofing around. committed to the bit, some may say. my mom knew that if nonsense was going to break out, he’d likely be at the center of it

so she goes up to this kid at the very start of the trip and says “hey, i’m kinda worried about this chaperoning thing. this might be a lot to ask, but can you help me keep an eye on everyone? you wouldn’t have to do anything big, just be an extra set of eyes for me.”

friends, this kid proceeded to run their field trip group like the fucking us marines. everyone is at the meet up spots at the designated time. everyone waits in line for the rides like a bunch of boy scouts. the second the horseplay gets too out of hand, this kid is getting it back under control

it’s incredible how differently people act based on the expectations you set. instead of going to this kid and saying “hey, i know you’re trouble, so i’ve got my eye on you,” my mom went “hey, i know you have influence in your peer group, so i think you can help me.”